Damon and I were out together, I liked to go shopping and Damon was my bodyguard or my boyfriend, my tormentor, the seducer who had finally got his reward. Now we were just waiting for my first heat. We always tried to call it when it was just the two of us, but as we both had to go out a lot, the times were less frequent than I might have liked. And since Damon is pretty possessive, Adam didn't really approach me all the time either. We were in downtown New York. It was already evening when Damon wanted to take me to a restaurant for dinner. We went to this fancy restaurant and Damon, of course, ordered the food because he seemed to know what I could and couldn't eat. I got a big steak, a real juicy steak and Damon had the same thing. We ate our food and drank wine and then came dessert. Two heart-shaped cakes. Damon stood up and came forward and knelt down and dug out the jewelry box and opened it. There was a ring "Mimi. The love of my life. Will you marry me?" he asked and I looked for a moment and said, "Damon, the love of my life, yes I fucking will." We kissed passionately and the whole restaurant cheered and he slipped the ring on my finger. It was gold with a big diamond. It was perfect.

We spent the night in the hotel in a frenzy and went out again in the morning. We were walking and all of a sudden Damon wanted to go to an antique shop, I followed him. I was watching everything when Damon came up behind me and wrapped himself around me. "Here baby, your engagement present. This is ours." He handed me a music box. It was black ebony with gold trim. When I opened it I heard a tune. It was incredibly beautiful, but I didn't know what it was. I asked Damon, "Whose composition is this?" Damon said " That's unique, it only belongs in this music box. " I thought it was a lovely engagement present. We were engaged to be married. Damon said " Baby I want to go with you to a very old ritual wedding of vampires. I've never done it with anyone and you can only do it once. No matter how old you are. I would like baby to do this my one time with you. We could go to the registry office for a real human wedding and this could be our special wedding, what do you say?" I was impressed. A ritual you only get to do once. Damon is old and he wants to do it with me, of course. I replied "Of course, the object of my love, my future husband, and my own. The registry is fine."

We went back to the house and Damon's phone rang. He went out to talk and then came back twenty minutes later. "Mimi, sorry but I have to go somewhere for a while again I'll start on the vampire wedding thing at the same time because it needs a bit of prep work and it actually has to be approved by the Elders, but baby, don't worry I'll be back and then we'll have a vampire wedding and an official wedding. Then we'll really be each other. All the time." I kissed Damon passionately and said " Go, let the restless winds take you away again. I look forward to our wedding." Damon smiled and grabbed his coat and left.

A couple of days went by and Adam was busy at work as usual, so I decided to go to the store. I drove to the store and went into the market, bought my groceries, mostly baking supplies. I was on my way to my car when all of a sudden I couldn't move anymore. it was as if some force had pinned me down and then there was a terrible pressure on my head. My bags fell to the ground as I collapsed to my knees. I felt myself being dragged by the armpits and slammed into the car. Not tied down but the pressure in my head didn't let up. Then I felt someone grab my head and twist quickly. The darkness.

I woke up in a cage and my neck was tender, this was a silver cage and it hurt. I had shackles with some runes or magical symbols on them. Women passed by my cage and I felt their power. Witches, Oh fuck it wouldn't be that easy to escape but not impossible. But what the hell do they want? Then I saw and actually heard the others. Complaining, moaning. Adam had told me before about the different witches, it was part of it when I was doing gigs. Know your enemy and don't think that the medical institutions are the only ones because they're not. These were black witches and they were looking for pain. Victims were tortured for it. Pain gave them power and I remembered the stones Drusilla put near my cage at the time. Fine. Adam had taught me that witches are physiologically and anatomically human, so they are easy to kill as such, but when they can paralyze you pretty quickly, that's the challenge. But hey, I'll take the challenge.

Then a familiar figure walked up to my cage. Ben Shaw. I had last seen him years ago before even Damon had joined the pack, we had been captured and I had bailed everyone out and then jumped in front of another bullet to protect Adam. I'd spent a week drugged at the vet because I'd been in wolf form when this happened and Ben had just seen the sign for the vet where I was then driven. Ben was not well. He was dead and yet he was walking. I could smell that he was dead. He came over to my cage and said " It's been a long time, I just wish it had been a much better time, but can you get away? Can you do anything about these witches? I'm sorry but I have to do whatever they tell me to do. They took my heart and burned it in their ritual, I am dead but until someone releases me or destroys my body, I will have no peace. If you, Mimi, get free, will you let me go? Destroy my body, you must remove my head. Then I can go. I can't be saved, believe it. No way. If I could, I wouldn't mind living, even as a zombie, I'd like to see my son Burt again. He's only 3 months old. But Mimi, please. And if you get the chance. Let us all go. As you can see, everyone these people have captured is a goner, beyond redemption. Now they only long for the pain to end."

I was silent and said passionately. "Ben, Adam will help, and we have wizards, let's make you a vampire if we have to, are you sure my blood won't help? Don't fucking give up yet. ' Ben smiled and opened the door to my cage and grabbed me tightly and started to drag me to one of the tables as the witches ordered. They tied me up and put pain crystals all over the floor and started chanting spells. Too bad I was pretty immune to magic and whatever they planned to do didn't work.

Then they figured out what works, silver. I do get hurt when you start slashing with silver but then you have to take responsibility for what I do if I get too annoyed. The rage comes out and then all bets are off so to speak. But I wasn't going to say that to the witches. I'd rather not always take my rage out when it's not always so easy to take it back. I just brought up the fact that cutting with silver mostly annoyed me. Pain crystals didn't darken at a terrible rate. Eventually, the witches got bored and made Ben drag me back to the cage. A few hours later, again, different spells and different knives. Didn't work. Back in the cage. The witches tried different knives but as long as I could keep my rage up, nothing worked. That's not to say I didn't get wounds or stabs that weren't healing too damn well, I just didn't care. I bided my time. I'd get out of here and fast. Then they forced me to drink some potion. So now Ben dragged me to a chair where they tied me down and stuck a hose down my throat and poured the potion in. My head turned into cotton wool. Now I really didn't care about anything. I was in my own world.